Legal Research

"Short Legal Communications"

Posted by Patrick J. Lamb: "A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about lawyers refusing to take a position on something.  I've gotten a lot of nice comments on ...and on the other hand ... and wanted to follow up with a short but important point.  When you figure out what your real point is, the one hand you want the client to know about, express yourself succinctly.  I was reminded of the importance of something I take for granted by Dan Michaluk's post, The case for short legal communications.

One of the great things about my early legal career was starting at Katten Muchin when its primary clients were young entrepreneurs, like the firm's founders.  I remember frequently being disappointed that we didn't have institutional clients who had in-house counsel.  In retrospect, I count myself fortunate to have dealt on a daily basis with the men and women who owned and operated the businesses that came to Katten for representation.  In that circumstance, we learned quickly that multi-page memos analyzing arcane legal issues and tangents would be met with derision.  The clients wanted an answer and a reason, and if your thinking did not make sense in the context of their business, your time with the firm would be short. 

You had one paragraph to state the issue, and the answer.  You had a second paragraph to state your reasons.  Everything else was waste in the eyes of many of the clients.  As I've aged, these lessons of my youth have served me well."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: In Search of Perfect Client Service, 2 September 2009 

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 10, 2009 (boomark / email).